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major triad

noun

, Music.
  1. a triad consisting in root position of a root tone with a major third and a perfect fifth above.


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Example Sentences

The slowly ascending notes in the lower staff of Bach’s original, which outline a G major triad, become, in the upside-down version, a graceful falling figure in the top line.

In the Scherzo of his Sinfonietta—completed in 1913, when he was sixteen—Korngold is speaking his own language: melodies bound along with rhythmic freedom, harmonies ricochet from one major triad to another, a full-strength orchestra glitters and dances before the ears.

Like all sixteenth-century composers, he knew that some chords felt especially close and comfortable next to one another: the C major triad, for example, contains two of the same notes as the E minor triad and is therefore closely related to it; likewise the E minor triad shares two of its notes with the G major triad and they too are closely related.

Composers discovered that some chords were drawn magnetically to others: adding an F to the G major triad, G-B-D, made it yearn to move towards the C major triad, for example - of which more shortly.

The root of the G major triad, G-B-D, is G, because it lies at the bottom - but if you add a low bass note playing the note E, for example, the root of the chord shifts to E and the chord changes its sound.

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major termMajunga